Placer County Elections & Politics Digest

Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by nearly 30 points in California in the 2020 U.S. presidential race. A recent poll shows Biden now has just a 15-point lead in the Golden State over Trump, which might hint at a close national race next year.

California’s population of homeless veterans has plateaued despite billions of dollars in state spending to create housing for former service members. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to shift resources to focus on veterans with serious mental health conditions.

California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has endorsed Rep. Adam Schiff in a crowded U.S. Senate race. Other candidates include representatives Barbara Lee and Katie Porter.

One of the few areas the Supreme Court has agreed on in recent years is free speech. Now, the high court will decide if protections extend to a woman who sued after being cited in 2017 for honking 14 times as she drove by a political protest.

California’s Secretary of State has told the Shasta County Board of Supervisors that it cannot hand-count ballots in its Nov. 7 special election. In a letter, Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the county must comply with new legislation that bars the hand-counting of ballots.

A nonpartisan coalition of voting rights advocates has asked the California Secretary of State’s office to monitor upcoming elections in Shasta County because of concerns about safety and the spread of misinformation.

California cities can ban synthetic turf under a law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed. He rejected a bill to ban PFAS in fake lawns.

Gov. Newsom vetoed bills to outlaw caste discrimination and to consider gender affirmation in child custody cases. Advocates wonder if he’s thinking about his national political profile.

The governor signed two other bills that strengthen protections for grocery workers during grocery store mergers and acquisitions.

Marie Alvarado-Gil and her team recently celebrated the grand opening of the state senator’s El Dorado Hills district office. Events included an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony.

If California’s new U.S. senator runs in the 2024 election, she would likely have to court labor unions’ support, quickly. But with three other labor-friendly Democrats already winning union backing, time and resources are running out.

El Dorado County is part of California’s long history of secessionist sentiment. There have been more than 200 efforts to exit, and more than 200 times the movements have come to naught. But some locals are trying again.

Student workers at the 23-campus system say their pay is low, their hours are restricted and they get no sick pay. They are hoping to join the employees union to fix that.

Gov. Newsom's pick to replace the late Dianne Feinstein is set to be sworn in Tuesday as California's U.S. senator. She isn't saying whether she will run next year, but if she does, it would change the dynamics of the U.S. Senate race.

Newsom rejected Senate Bill 799, which would have paid striking workers California unemployment benefits after two weeks, and SB 686, which would have extended workplace safety protections to domestic workers, such as housekeepers and nannies.

GOP leaders and activists will hear Friday from Donald Trump and other presidential candidates before deciding whether to change the party platform on abortion and same-sex marriage.

But these days, rural Democrats, in Siskiyou especially, feel surrounded by increasingly empowered conspiracy theorists, separatists, and extremists. They sense that grassroots organizing is more important than ever.

Unions won major victories this session on pay for fast food and health care workers, benefits for strikers and bargaining rights. Business groups say that labor has too much power at the Capitol.

About 5,300 companies would file annual emissions reports. The aim is to hold corporations accountable for the role they play in climate change.

A bipartisan bill would create a state ombudsperson to intervene when public records requests are denied. But an advocacy group is concerned that it will encourage state agencies to go to court.

The Legislature is approving lots of significant bills in the final days of the session. But the final call is up to the governor, and he isn’t shy about using his veto pen.

"Shasta County is not our own country," said Tim Garman, a Shasta County supervisor who opposed the hand-counting effort. "We don't get to make all of our own laws.”

More than 100 people spoke for and against the measure during the six-hour meeting of the Rocklin Unified School Board, which voted to approve a policy requiring teachers to tell parents if their child asks to be identified as a gender other than their assigned sex at birth.

In rapid-fire votes in suspense file hearings, lawmakers determined the fate of hundreds of bills on crime, transgender students and more.

A small group of activists want California voters to decide whether transgender minors should be allowed to receive puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants counties to spend some revenue from California’s so-called “millionaire’s tax” on the state’s homeless crisis. That alarms advocates for programs that are getting that money today.

As the California Legislature reconvenes for the final five weeks of its session, the leader of the Assembly Public Safety Committee is under the spotlight. But Reggie Jones-Sawyer isn’t backing down.

Placer County is opening the new Clerk-Recorder-Elections Office, which will serve as the primary location for all transactions with the County Clerk-Recorder, on Atherton Road in Rocklin.

Thirteen Republican state attorneys general have sent a cautionary letter to the CEOs of the 100 largest U.S. companies, highlighting the potential legal ramifications of using race as a factor in employment practices.

Rep. Katie Porter was the choice of 19% of likely voters, just ahead of Rep. Adam Schiff at 16% and Rep. Barbara Lee at 13%, a June survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found. PPIC also found that in the race for the White House, 50% of the state’s likely Republican voters support former President Donald Trump.

California lawmakers tried nine times to stiffen penalties for trafficking of a minor. The latest effort appeared to die — until a social media campaign forced Democrats to reconsider.

Robert Rivas tells anyone who will listen that his rise from farmworker housing on the rural Central Coast to Assembly Speaker is wholly unexpected. But many who have watched the Democrat’s climb from an outgoing high-schooler to a San Benito County supervisor to the holder of one most powerful political offices in the state are not surprised.